1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conveying device that conveys a recording medium for duplex printing in an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile, and a printing machine uses a technology for forming an image on a recording medium such as recording paper by electrophotography. The image forming apparatus can form the image in monochrome or in multicolor. In either case, a development device visualizes an electrostatic latent image formed on a photoreceptor that is used as a latent image holder, the visualized image is transferred to the recording paper, and then the image is fixed.
There have been increasing needs for a technology for forming images on both sides of the recording paper, and there is a technology for reversing a sheet of the recording paper with the image fixed on one side and then transferring another image on the other side.
For example, paragraph 0014 in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. H11-60081 discloses a technology for reversing a conveying direction of the fixed recording paper in a reverse conveying path below an imaging unit that forms and transfers an image, and feeding the paper to a transfer position by a resisting roller.
However, the technology involves the following problems. Because a reverse conveying unit is provided below the imaging unit in a chassis of the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus is tall.
Moreover, if a conveyance failure such as a paper jam occurs to the reverse conveying unit below the imaging unit, the failure cannot be easily fixed because the reverse conveying unit cannot be easily exposed.